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Winter Run 02 |
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Discussion
Board Caribou
Hills 6-03 | We all met in Kenai at 8:00 am on Saturday November 9th, 2002. The drive down to Oil Well road, was good. When we reached the end of the pavement, we were greeted by a HUGE washout in the road. It was a sign of what was yet to come. The heavy rains from the previous weeks, had taken out about 100 feet of road. By the time we reached the end of Oil Well Road, we had crossed several washouts and navigated a few detours. Things were looking good for Wheelin'!
We parked our trailers at the pad on the end of the road and were quickly greeted by another weekend warrior. He had driven his F-150 back a few hundred yards and mired down in one of the many mud holes left by the recent rain. I gave him a tug and went on our way. By Noon we were all on the trail, and headed for the cabin. Only 20 minutes later, I romped through a mud hole and blew the heater hose fitting out the back of my passenger side cylinder head. With the help of the many mechanics we had with us, I was able to loctite the fitting back into the head. I left the radiator cap loose so that it wouldn't build too much pressure, and we were once again on our way.
The trail we chose to ride first proved a challenge for all of us, as It was washed out for about 3 miles. In many places the wash was 6-8 feet wide and 10-15 feet deep. There were many places where we were able to play with out risking total disaster, so we chose our lines carefully and made decent progress for the first hour or two. John drove into one wash and managed to blow a bogger off the rim. He winched himself out backwards and re-seated the bead. By the time we got to Four Corners, it was getting dark and we decided that we would press on in order to make it to the cabin at a reasonable hour.
We took a few minutes to grab a snack and headed down the trail. It wasn't 5 min and Doug's Samurai came to a sudden halt. The timing gear had spit out the bolt, belt, and key, never to be seen again. Doug was done for the day so we loaded up his gear and he and his passenger hopped in with Ray, and John. By now it was dark and the trail got swampy, and wet. We navigated our way up the trail, and towards the cabin.
While driving around some fallen trees, Wichman's steering suddenly went dead. Upon investigation we discovered the end of the box had cracked and the piston pushed the end cap out, allowing all the fluid to squirt out. John removed the power steering pump belt, and continued down the trail without power steering. Man its hard to steer a truck on 40" boggers and no power steering. I had left my spare box in the tow rid, back at the trail head. Oops! Further down the trail I took a wrong turn, and ended up buried over my tires in a spring hole. I crawled out the window (the door wouldn't open cause of the mud) and hooked up the winch to Rays Bronco. I winched out to where I thought I was safe, but no dice. When I hit the gas, I just continued to sink. Ray nosed up, and we hooked the tow strap to his big bronco. He had pulled a few good times when we determined that he wasn't getting anywhere, so out comes the winch again, this time strapping it off to a tree. The old 8274 groaned and complained as I held the switch, it was just about to stall when the tires grabbed a bit of traction and I was free. Sorry no pics of that "Stuck", I didn't want to get my feet wet ;)
The trail was beginning to get narrow, and increasingly difficult due to the lack of light. Things were getting tough when Wichman drove his CJ-10 into a rut, and one of his passengers hit the "pretty blue switch" on the dash, turning his front ARB air locker on. One turn of the steering wheel, and a blip of the throttle was all it took to snap the front axle u-joint like a match stick. The Warn Alloy axles held up great so John was able replace the u-joint in about an hour. While driving the u-joint out with the BFH, a shard flew off and hit Kurt just below the eye! Lucky man, a half inch higher he would have been in serious trouble. It was about 10:00 pm now, and we were all getting pretty tired. Luckily the final destination was close by. An half hour later we were lighting a fire in the wood stove, and enjoying a nice hot meal. The next morning, we cooked breakfast and loaded up for the trip home. Things went much better now that it was daylight. We were able to make it back to 4 Corners by 2:00 PM, where we glued Doug's timing gear back on, and replaced the belt. Doug was able to drive the rest of the way out with no mechanical problems what so ever. Lucky!
We turned west at 4 corners and headed down the Straight In trail. This wasn't the way we came in, but we had received reports of house sized washouts so we had to check it out! The reports were true, but due to time limits and the carnage, we decided to skip them and cruise back to the trail head where we were parked. The trail had some really good mud holes, and some pretty deep water crossings. Doug managed to dig himself into one, so I strapped him out and took a few good pictures. The remaining few miles of trail were fun, we were all goofing around drying to drive up each others rigs while crawling down the trail. Ray managed to climb the back of my 76 and catch one of his tow hooks on the lug of my Drivers side rear Goodyear! The hook dug in good, so we both backed up at the same time and roll it off with no damage. On the way out we stopped and gawked at one of the large washouts that took out the road to Wichman's cabin, then loaded rigs onto our trailers. It was a great trip, and we all had alot of fun. I had a blast, and got to take 98 pics! Everyone was able to drive out under their own power, and the ride home went well, except for Ray running out of gas 10 minutes before the next gas station. Maybe next year our "Winter Run" will include snow!
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